William Ralph Inge (1860 – 1954)
Popularly referred to simply as Dean Inge, was an English author, Anglican prelate, professor of divinity at Cambridge, and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral.
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There are two kinds of fools: one says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better."
It is becoming impossible for those who mix at all with their fellow-men to believe that the grace of God is distributed denominationally.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge, always drives man from some paradise or other.
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.
Civilization is a disease which is almost invariably fatal.
So the pendulum swings, now violently, now slowly; and every institution not only carries within it the seeds of its own dissolution, but prepares the way for its most hated rival.
It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
Patriotism varies, from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.
A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours.
When our first parents were driven out of Paradise, Adam is believed to have remarked to Eve: "My dear, we live in an age of transition."
No word in our language — not even "Socialism"— has been employed more loosely than "Mysticism." … The history of the word begins in close connexion with the Greek mysteries. A mystic is one who has been, or is being, initiated into some esoteric knowledge of Divine things, about which he must keep his mouth shut…
We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
The phase of thought or feeling which we call Mysticism has its origin in that which is the raw material of all religion, and perhaps of all philosophy and art as well, namely, that dim consciousness of the beyond, which is part of our nature as human beings. Men have given different names to these "obstinate questionings of sense and outward things." We may call them, if we will, a sort of higher instinct, perhaps an anticipation of the evolutionary process; or an extension of the frontier of consciousness; or, in religious language, the voice of God speaking to us. Mysticism arises when we try to bring this higher consciousness into relation with the other contents of our minds.
True contemplation considers Reality (or Being) in its manifestations as well as in its origin. If this is remembered, there need be no conflict between social morality and the inner life. Eckhart recognises that it is a harder and a nobler task to preserve detachment in a crowd than in a cell; the little daily sacrifices of family life are often a greater trial than selfimposed mortifications. "We need not destroy any little good in ourselves for the sake of a better, but we should strive to grasp every truth in its highest meaning, for no one good contradicts another." "Love God, and do as you like, say the Free Spirits. Yes; but as long as you like anything contrary to God's will, you do not love Him."
There is much more of the same kind in Eckhart's sermons — as good and sensible doctrine as one could find anywhere.
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